Today was a good day for relaxing. At least I could silently contemplate on SYF without actually having to do anything about it yet. But hopeless doing that sometimes. After today, 2 more days.

On a lighter note, here's something that happened yesterday. After the PlayMax group leader briefing, The crowd of us walked out of the building and decided to head towards some famous coffeeshop for a snack and to discuss. Then while walking, Xiao Jun passed her violin to me for me to help carry. Then I can't remember how, but Jian Ling ended up carrying it for a while. Then she started inspecting the case and then suddenly asked, "where's the switch?" My goodness.. That's the funniest thing a violin case could have heard in its lifetime.

Today I started talking to Jean about how smss and syf were going. MGS is aiming for Gold with Honours and the sec 3s and 4s will just cry if they don't get it. Then she started talking about how all the syf-involved ccas in her school got gold, except one - Gold with Honours. Gah.. They want to be the next to get it. And I was telling her I'd be jumping like mad if smss got silver. Then Jean gave me a huge shock. She suddenly offered to go down to smss to listen to the ensemble and try to help out. My first reaction was, "are you sure? your ears might die, you know?" Well she seemed pretty determined to do it. Well, one reason could be because smss really had nothing to lose. Other schools have closed rehearsals and get very fussy about who listens. Another reason could be because she's too free - really. She doesn't even practice syf pieces at home, except on 2 occasions before her syf auditions. 2 days to SYF, still no SYF practices in her room. Another reason, she probably thinks I'm going to die before SYF. She started making me watch funny youtube videos (Britains got Talent) in an indirect attempt to get me alive. Like CPR.

The power of music - it can depress you, and it can numb your depression. I realised that I managed to stay away from thinking about cca while doing violin practice (except when I was practicing SYF pieces). I don't know why. Maybe it's because my brain is more able to divert great stresses to playing music. For once in an extremely long while, I sat at the piano and started playing around with it, improvising on whatever melodies came to my head. And I managed to digress from thinking about cca too intently for a record breaking 2 hours this week. I consider that a personal achievement. But after playing the violin/piano for 3 hours, the usual thoughts came back.

New string ensemble motto: Move Like Siao
Our value: Breathe

Never give up, even when things are looking hopeless. This is the right time to abide by it.